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Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Is the Move to the Right a Rejection of Postmodernism?

The black hat - increasingly worn by RWMO Jews

As part of his Dvar Torah questioning the wisdom of continuing to offer Talmud study
to all women in Modern Orthodox (MO) schools, Rabbi Mordechai Willig made the
following observation:

The ‘precipitous move to the right within Modern Orthodoxy’
is, in reality, a rejection of postmodernism.

One can quibble with his use of the term ‘postmodernism’. But let us assume that what he meant by that is the
extreme left of Modern Orthodoxy’s embrace of Open Orthodoxy which has adopted
questionable ideals from the general culture that Modern Orthodoxy had never accepted.Rabbi Willig feels that this has caused traditional Modern Orthodox Jews to react by going in
the opposite direction.

That may be true. But I think we need to look at this phenomenon
historically to fully understand how Modern Orthodoxy evolved since the years
of the Holocaust.

Mainstream Modern Orthodoxy of the pre-Holocaust years
consisted of customs and habits that were not entirely Halachic. One would find
things like mixed dancing, mixed swimming, lack of hair covering by married women, and surprisingly even a lack of Taharas
HaMishpacha in more than a few cases. Many Modern Orthodox Jews had no clue about the severity of
this Halacha. They saw’going to the Mikva’ as an archaic ritual observed in unsanitary conditions.
And they simply refused to participate in this ritual.

Shabbos observance consisted of not going to work; not
driving; going to Shul, and then home to a Shabbos meal. The idea of 39 Melachos of Shabbos was not
well known in those days. The reason for that was Jewish education was in most cases very
skimpy. Universal day school education did not yet exist. A lot of MO Jews went
to public school in those days. Even for
those that did attend MO schools the religious education left a lot to desire. Many
of the religious teachers were incompetent. Some were not even observant! If
one wants to read an account of what Jewish education was like in those days,
Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet’s memoirs tell the story. It was pretty dismal.

After the Holocaust when many Jewish refugees from Europe settled
in the US, things changed. Day schools, high schools, and Yeshivos were
established to accommodate the vast majority of observant Jews. The teachers in
those schools were highly educated Jewishly – having been trained in European
Yeshivos. And a lot of Modern Orthodox parents started sending their children
to those schools. Those children learned what religious observance and
tradition was really all about.

So originally the move to the right was really no more than
a move to be more observant of Halacha… to be more serious about it. These were
the MO Jews that became Right Wing Modern Orthodox (RWMO). They became more knowledgeable
and thereby more observant.

Of course there were a lot of MO Jews that preferred living
the way they had been raised as children in homes that were not as knowledgeable
and therefore not as committed to Halacha. They saw (and probably still see)
the RWMO Jew as a rejection of Modern Orthodoxy. They chose instead to continue
their previous lifestyles. The schools they sent their children to were
inclined to cater to them with a coed school system where the values of the general
culture were far more emphasized.

How did we get to the extremists of the left? A committed Modern Orthodox Jew whose values are
strongly influenced by the general culture has had those values validated by their Shul Rabbis
and the schools their children attend. This in my view is what has led to
Open Orthodoxy’s embrace of the egalitarian goals of feminism.

Rabbi Willing seems to be saying that MO Jews have gravitated to
the right in reaction to that. But it is
a reaction that goes beyond Halacha and tradition. And in my view - a huge
mistake.

That’s because it usually entails incorporating customs that
are not Halachicly required. Just more right wing. Like having separate seating at their
children’s weddings; or wearing black
hats; or perhaps most significantly - sending their children to mainstream Charedi schools.
Which in turn influences them even further to the right.

I have no problem with people choosing to be more right
wing. My problem is why they might be doing it. If it is in reaction to the
left – for fear of their influence diluting their Yiddishkeit, that is a sad
thing. They should instead stand up for their own values and not mimic the
right. Mixed seating at a weddings (for example) is becoming an increasingly
rare event in RWMO circles. It has been relegated to the Left and to MO Lites.

I cannot object enough to this phenomenon. There is no need
for RWMO to become defacto Charedi. But it seems we are crossing that line.

This is not right. We need to stand firm and not adopt the
lifestyles of the right just to distinguish ourselves from the left. We should maintain
our own values. Which are to be solidly Halachic Jews loyal to tradition. And at the same time fully participant in the general culture that does not
contradict that. If we don’t assert ourselves this way we will all eventually
be gobbled up by the tidal wave that is mainstream Charedism. And that would be a great loss to Judaism.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.